Final Four: Best quotes from Saturday's games

“I know our leaders, our captains, they didn't come here to beat Oklahoma. They came here to win a national championship.”

Villanova's Josh Hart, on what it was like to play with Vice President Joe Biden in the audience:

“I didn't know he was here.”

Syracuse's Michael Gbinije, after the loss to North Carolina:

“I'm a little crushed right now.”

Vice President Joe Biden on his alma mater Syracuse:

“They made me so proud his year. A lot of guts. No quit.”

Jay Wright, on Villanova's huge late lead against Oklahoma, and when he thought the game was safe:

“About three minutes to go, (assistant) Baker Dunleavy said, 'Do you want to put the walk-ons in?' I said no. I wasn't even sure at that point to be honest. When you're in it, you're not thinking clearly about that, about the game being over. You're thinking about the next play, substitutions. Probably everyone else knew earlier than I did.”

Wright, on getting this far for the new Big East:

“We reinvented ourselves. That's what we did in a time when college athletics is really being run by football.”

Jim Boeheim after Syracuse's loss:

“I told the players after the game that I'm more proud of this team than any team I've ever coached... I'm going to be like a football coach now. I'm going to have to look at the tapes more closely to figure out how we got here, because I'm not really sure, and I have looked at the tapes. I'm still not quite sure.”

Boeheim, on his wariness in pressing North Carolina:

“We were going to, because that was the only way to get back in it. But it's kind of like, if I'm on top of the Empire State Building, I don't have to jump to know it's going to hurt. I don't need to press North Carolina to know it's going to hurt. They're veteran guys. They're good against pressure. They like pressure. They score against pressure.”

“Why do you guys always ask me that, really? Did you ask Roy that? Make sure you ask Roy when he comes in, too.”

Roy Williams, before he was even asked the retirement question in his press conference:

“You have asked me that question five times since I got into town. If I'm going to retire, I think I'll retire in the next two minutes. How good do you think the chances are of me retiring in the next two minutes? So don't ask me that stupid question either.”

Oklahoma's Buddy Hield on Villanova:

“One of the best teams I ever played in college.”

Hield on being a role model for his native Bahamas:

“Just coming where I came from, I'm just glad everybody back home got to see me play, inspired the young kids back home to be the next me or even better than me.”

Oklahoma coach Lon Kruger on the record loss:

“We own that. We're not shying away from that. Villanova was great. They played great. We didn't. So it was a combination of the two. But certainly defensively we didn't do a very good job. But certainly Villanova had a lot to do with that.”

“When we're sharing the ball, I think the sky's the limit for this team.”

Williams, on his impressions on the Villanova game:

“I did not watch one second of the Villanova-Oklahoma game today. Even after we got here in the arena, I told them, ‘Give me a place where there's no TV.' I read the Syracuse scouting reports for times 61, 62 and 63 because I thought that was more important to me.”

Williams, on Marcus Paige not being rated highly among NBA draft prospects:

“All the mock drafts and things like that, they're not listing that guy. Somebody is going to get a guy that is going to be in the NBA 10 to 12 years. I'm going to be happy to watch him.”

"If we win Monday, Kris will never hear me stop talking about the time we beat him in the national championship. I will permanently have a one-up on him."

Mike Lopresti is a member of the US Basketball Writers Hall of Fame, Ball State journalism Hall of Fame and Indiana Sportswriters and Sportscasters Hall of Fame. He has covered college basketball for 43 years, including 39 Final Fours. He is so old he covered Bob Knight when he had dark hair and basketball shorts were actually short.The views on this page do not necessarily reflect the views of the NCAA or its member institutions.

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